I started 2026 with the goal of being debt-free by Christmas. I’d looked at my figures and knew roughly how I was going to do it.
Then the Bobcat broke down, again. It is a 30 year old machine, and we’ve been nursing it for a while, but replacing it this year was not part of the plan.
We don’t need much in the way of machinery on the croft, being small scale most jobs can be done by hand but it does mean the kit we do have is essential. Our Bobby lifts and shifts bales for us, making and moving smaller bales by hand costs too much time and money.
Big machines need capital, that’s not something that’s easy for a small croft to generate quickly. Realising the Bobcat was jumping the queue financially was a disheartening blow. I allowed myself 24 hours to wallow because it’s a valid reason to be down, but then it has to become about being proactive.
I’m looking to get a 2nd hand replacement machine. Once I worked out what I needed to raise and by when, the only task was to start chipping away at that total.
This is when I find having multiple income streams on the croft really helpful. It helps me achieve many things at once. For example, egg money has always been our holiday fund, the Bobcat is being funded in part at least, by the printable resources I create and sell via my website. There are some tools to help organise your farming as well as general life admin tools.
Knowing each of my money generating activies has a specific purpose helps me stay motivated to keep doing them.
I also use an app called Plum where I set up savings pots and can see my progress. Seeing the progress is a brilliant morale boost. If you’d like to find out more about Plum here is my affiliate link. Just so you know if you do pay to sign up via my link I get a small kick back fee from the company. So thank you if you do, it will also go in the Bobcat fund, in the hope we can get a new one by the time the cows come back in for winter.